Appaloosa

When it comes to writing, Robert B. Parker knows no boundaries. From the iconic Spenser detective series and the novels featuring Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone, to the groundbreaking historical novel Double Play, Parker's imagination has taken readers from Boston to Brooklyn and back again. In Appaloosa, fans are taken on another trip, to the untamed territories of the West during the 1800s.

One of the Best Old west tales

This was a great book. A great and realistic tale about two Old West Marshalls. It has everything Friendships, gunfights, mercenaries, Train robbber..Show More »ies, Murder, Indians; everything you would expect from old west fiction. If you are a fan of the Wyatt earp tales or enjoy old west sagas like the HBO show Deadwood. This book is highly recommended.

Resolution

After the bloody confrontation in Appaloosa, Everett Hitch heads into the afternoon sun and ends up in Resolution, an Old West town so new the dust has yet to settle. It's the kind of town that doesn't have much in the way of commerce, except for a handful of saloons and some houses of ill repute.

Rootin, Tootin, Shootin!

A real old time gunslinger story with plenty of goodies, baddies, saloon girls, whiskey and, above all, the dry quip. Uh huh! Yep! There were many..Show More » "I said" followed by "He Said" statements which should have been edited out as they are obvious from the character voices but overall it is a good narration. Light and enjoyable.

Brimstone

When we last saw Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, they had just put things to right in the rough-and-tumble Old West town of Resolution. It's now a year later, and Virgil has only one thing on his mind: Allie French, the woman who stole his heart from their days in Appaloosa. Even though Allie ran off with another man, Virgil is determined to find her, his deputy and partner Everett Hitch at his side.

Brimstone

Just a fantastic listen..particularly if you have read either or both of the two previous books of the trilogy (Appaloosa and/or Redemption)..I saw th..Show More »e movie starring Ed Harris which was great ..the narration here and plot are the best of the series..I just wish Parker would write more about these compelling characters..if you like action and very believable westerns you won't be disappointed

Blue-Eyed Devil

"Law enforcement in Appaloosa had once been Virgil Cole and me. Now there was a chief of police and 12 policemen." The new chief is Amos Callico, a tall, fat man in a derby hat, wearing a star on his vest and a big pearl-handled Colt inside his coat. An ambitious man with his eye on the governorship - and perhaps the presidency - he wants Cole and Hitch on his side. But they can't be bought, which upsets him mightily.

The Quick and the good

Blue-eyed Devil is the shortest of Parker's Westerns. It goes over familiar territory, people with shady pasts, witty dialogue, etc. I've read or list..Show More »ened to all Parker's westerns-- and I don't like westerns.

Robert B. Parker's Ironhorse

For years, Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch have ridden roughshod over rabble-rousers and gun hands in troubled towns like Appaloosa, Resolution, and Brimstone. Now, newly appointed as territorial marshalls, they find themselves traveling by train through the Indian Territories.

A happy surprise for Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch

I was really pleased with' Ironhorse.' Robert Knott picks up the threads of Cole and Hitch's story and does a fine job. Parker fans that are nervous a..Show More »bout the new writers taking over the established characters will be glad to know that Mr. Knott was a great choice for this series. Titus Welliver brings the characters and action to life with his usual flair. I can't imagine listening to anyone else reading the "Appaloosa" books.

Robert B. Parker's Bull River: A Cole and Hitch Novel, #6

After hunting down the notorious desperado Alejandro Vasquez, Territorial Marshal Virgil Cole and Deputy Everett Hitch return him to San Cristóbal to stand trial. No sooner do they remand him into custody than a major bank robbery occurs and the lawmen find themselves tasked with another job: investigating the robbery of the Comstock Bank, recovering the loot, and bringing the criminals to justice.

Bad choice of narrator

I loved the first of Robert Knott's "Robert B. Parker's ..." novels (Ironhorse). It was very faithful to the style of Parker, along with being a great..Show More » yarn. In particular I liked Titus Welliver as the narrator. Welliver did all the previous Cole-Hitch books, and he was excellent. Rex Linn, not so much.

Linn does a fair job of sounding like a Gary Cooper playing a old time western marshal, as Cole and Hitch are intended. But they sound identical in his rendition. In fact almost everyone sounds the same, with the exception of the Mexicans in the story who sound the same but with an atrocious Mexican accent.

Mexican accents aside, there were other problems with the narration.

You know those parts in dialogs where the author inserts things like "he said", "Hitch replied" (and every prepubescent boy's favorite, "Jack asked")? Welliver did a great job of easing those into the background. WIth Linn, they have the same emphasis as the dialog, and it is jarring.

Equally jarring were the very often repeated one-word responses from Cole or Hitch (Hitch: "It's what we do." Cole: "Is.") Linn just can't pull these off, and he makes Cole's "Is" sound clumsy and inappropriate to the dialog.

I liked the story fine (despite wondering if Parker would have given a woman the nickname "Slingshot"). But given the narration, this book would be a lot better in print than narrated by Linn.

Robert B. Parker's The Bridge

Territorial Marshals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch are back in Appaloosa, where their work enforcing the law has been exceptionally quiet. All that is about to change. An ominous storm rolls in, and along with it a band of night riders with a devious scheme, who show up at the Rio Blanco camp, where a three-hundred-foot bridge is under construction.

Ugh...no more

The book: This is Knott's "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull"..... OMG, really cowboys and aliens don't go together. Why oh why - I don't ..Show More »know what she is supposed to be --- a dream, an alien, a runaway..... but it is just not what a western novel should have in it. Keep the mystics, aliens, angels and fairies in sci fi and out of the beloved Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch novels.